MISSISSIPPI

Some are calling the June 3 mayoral election in Jackson, Miss., a win-win situation. Either way, the last of the old civil rights cities will have as mayor its first black or its first woman. The wonder is that just a month ago, neither seemed possible. MAYOR KANE DITTO was the easy favorite to win a third term, but in a six-way race, the white two-term incumbent was trounced by HARVEY JOHNSON, a 50-year-old black urban planner. Johnson must now defeat G.O.P. primary winner CHARLOTTE REEVES. (A third and distant candidate is independent Ivory Phillips, a black woman.) The other wonder of this election is that though Jackson has a black majority, race has not been a dominant factor. Reeves, a white woman, handily defeated black civil rights activist James Meredith in the G.O.P. primary. Jackson voters seemed less concerned about color than about rising crime and other problems.

–By Sylvester Monroe